Price of gas: $3.97
Gardiner, MT to Ennis, MT
All my worry about it being massively cold last night: it was 50 degrees when I left this morning about 8:30 a.m. To be fair, by the time I was 10 miles up the road in the park, it was 37 degrees, so another 1500 feet up it would be yet several degrees colder. I still felt kinda goofy about it all.
Today is a day mostly of more geysers and mud pots and fumaroles. I got to see Old Faithful go off – such a thrill! – and have pictures of paint pots of various colors.
Old Faithful
I took a 5-mile hike to a waterfall… all my options, and I choose a waterfall. It was called Fairy Falls, and it was beautiful. Nice too, because most of the way was open sun. If I have to hike through one more burned-out forest, I’m going to scream! Glacier and Yellowstone both have so much scaring from fires.
Fairy Falls
Early fall colors
There’s a lot of dissonance for me with Yellowstone. There’s lots of forests here. Where I come from, under trees are things like, oh, dirt, or sand, or clay. Here… scratch the surface – or let what’s below the surface come up – and it’s reinforced again and again that you’re standing inside an active volcano.
There are dead trees all around that used to be growing just fine, but then one of the pressure points shifted, or something expanded, or what have you – and voila!, those trees are killed by the heated water moving their way.
There’s also a reverse current of dislike with Yellowstone. Not with the park itself, which is magnificent, but with the hordes of people there. I can’t imagine what it’s like at high summer. Yellowstone deserves the traffic. But the flip side is a commercialism that’s kind of gross. All the hotels in the park with their hundreds of beds. There are gas stations in the park – not just one, but several! Gah! (With gas at $4.20 a gallon!) At Old Faithful, I wasn’t sure which way to go – you couldn’t see the geysers, just the buildings, everything from a medical clinic to post office to TWO hotels to a “general store”. Sigh.
And it’s hot. Mid-70s in the park, 80s down in the lower lands. Welcome to Indian Summer.
After doing my hike, I contemplate a) camping, b) another hotel, c) the overpricedness of this area. I’d be driving on tomorrow at any rate, so I decide to head out. To the west; it cuts some time and mileage off my trip to Missoula. Even as I’m leaving I’m missing Yellowstone. This is Big Sky country and it is incredible. As I’m leaving the area, I come to a lake with the sun sparkling on it and the mountains ringing above it.
I only drive for about an hour, to the town of Ennis, but the purple mountains majesty is all around. In every direction I’m surrounded by mountains, and to the mountains is nothing but flat golden plains. It’s so beautiful it makes me ache.
There’s a small part II to this trip. In November my college roommate is getting married in Tahoe, and I had planned to drive down for that, too. The trip would go via the Oregon coast, California redwoods, a certain mead factory I love, and then over to Tahoe. I-5 all the way coming home. Part of me is a little weary, but mostly I’ve loved this trip. It’s another chance – albeit in rainy season – to see some of the glory that lives in this country. Days like today just reinforce why I should go.
Ennis is delightful. It appealed to me as I figured there wouldn’t be much here (there’s not) but it’s about 47 miles to I-90 and then just a few hours to Missoula. Tomorrow will be a short day driving, hallelujah. Anyway, Ennis is a cowboy town, but they’ve got a stellar pizza place and a river running through it and it’s friendly. I didn’t ride my bike, too small for that: walking main street took all of 10 minutes.
I’m melancholy to realize the rest of my trip is pretty much set. Tomorrow, Missoula. There’s a place I need to visit called Montana Tea & Spice. I was introduced to this place in Prague with their teas, and have bought my spices from there for 15 years, but never seen the place. Thursday on to Kennewick to visit Paul. Friday wine-tasting and hanging out with friends. Saturday home. Home!
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